Broadband News

Virgin Media announces Music Download Service

There has been music download services previously, but often these were hampered by Digital Rights Management with rules whereby you stopped your subscription and all the music you had downloaded
would no longer play. Virgin Media seems to have turned the existing model upside down and has announced the launch later this year of a 'Music to
Keep Forever on Any MP3 Player' service.

At this time negotiations are still ongoing with major UK and independent music labels, but Universal Music is on-board and subscribers at launch will have access to their entire catalog. The
service won't be free, it will involve a monthly subscription, with various tiers, ranging from entry level with a limited number of downloads and an 'unlimited' service that will allow you to both
stream and download MP3 files onto whatever devices you desire.

The new service reflects the shared commitment of Virgin Media and Universal Music to keep step with growing demand for online music in an increasingly digital world. In parallel, the two
companies will be working together to protect Universal Music's intellectual property and drive a material reduction in the unauthorized distribution of its repertoire across Virgin Media's
network.

This will involve implementing a range of different strategies to educate file sharers about online piracy and to raise awareness of legal alternatives. They include, as a last resort for persistent
offenders, a temporary suspension of internet access. No customers will be permanently disconnected and the process will not depend on network monitoring or interception of customer traffic by Virgin
Media.

Extract from press release

If Virgin Media can get the other major music labels on-board and the price is right, this service could very well boost the take-up of the Virgin Media cable broadband services, not forgetting
that where Virgin does not provide cable it can supply access to the service over the ADSL infrastructure. Interestingly given the proximity to the announcement of the Digital Britain report, one
would assume that what Virgin Media describes in terms of policing the area of online piracy fits in with what the report states as its aims.

As and when pricing information is published we will of course let people know. In the same way as SMS bundles on mobile contracts set upper ceilings for the number of messages you can send on
unlimited accounts we expect something similar with the Virgin Media music download service. Unlimited in terms of advertising is usually a misnomer and generally means a limit that is well in excess
of what the average consumer of a product/service uses.

Comments

The only problem I see is payment, people still have free alternatives whether that be from a torrent, usenet, other P2P client even Spotify. Why pay when you can get it free elsewhere.

Also it's from one music company, their are 5? or so big ones, still not what consumers want.

paulbeattie87

over 8 years ago

Timing is the key, if there is enough interest it may help to sway some of the other labels to offer their catalogue, or at the very least subsets of it.

If the penalties start to kick in post Digital Britain, then the paying a fee may have more appeal.

andrew

over 8 years ago

If you're already paying £50 a month most people expect to get as much media as they can find. That is after all the only reason to have fast internet connections. This idea of having every single family member isolated from each other in their own room streaming content or having VoIP converstions is appauling.

Capn

over 8 years ago

the devil will of course be in the detail e.g what about new albums and the number of record labels they sign up etc etc. Virgin,obviously,wont be the only ISP to offer this service. As for getting media is the only reason to have a fast internet connection well what can i say? ever heard of online games? We shall see what happens but its a step in the right direction for both ISP's (not the diconnection bit) and the record industry. Bring on films next

badger90

over 8 years ago

It all depends upon the pricing and implementation. People will pay for convenience and surety of service. What they wont do is feel ripped off and penalised when alternatives are freely available.

mishminx

over 8 years ago

I'd prefer to pay what I can afford rather than being forced to take free downloads because of unreasonably high prices.

beeflin

over 8 years ago

About a year ago I completed a survey from Virgin re a music download service, must say the figures they were asking about seemed very reasonable at that time, whether they will keep it reasonable remains to be seen. I for one would appreciate paying for a sensibly priced monthly service for good quality legitimate music downloads so long as I wasn't tied in for months on end.